Did Edison really invent the light bulb? Biography of Thomas Edison - photos, quotes, inventions, interesting facts, success story About personal life

Name: Thomas Alva Edison

State: USA

Field of activity: Inventor, entrepreneur

Greatest achievement: Invented the phonograph and lighting system, the incandescent light bulb.

Thomas Edison often heard from people that he was a genius. He answered this: "Genius is hard work, involving adherence to the truth and common sense."

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Mylen, Ohio, USA. In 1854, when the boy was seven years old, his family moved to Michigan, where Edison spent the rest of his childhood.

Childhood and youth of Thomas Edison

"Al", as his friends often called him, attended school reluctantly. He often skipped classes and behaved so badly that his mother, a former teacher, was forced to leave Thomas for homeschooling. Despite this, Al fell in love with reading and kept this love throughout his life. In addition, already in early age he equipped his first laboratory in the basement of the house.

Thomas was forced to work from the age of 12. He sold fruits, snacks and newspapers in the train car. In those days, trains were the most progressive of all existing species transport. Edison even printed his own newspaper, The Great Trunk Messenger, which he distributed in the same way.

At the age of 15, Thomas Edison becomes an itinerant telegrapher. Using Morse code, he sent and received telegraph messages. Over the next seven years, Thomas Edison traveled widely and often worked nights to receive messages for trains and the Union army in time. IN free time Edison studied the principle of the telegraph and after a while decided that he knew a way to improve it. Finally, he came to the realization that he wanted to invent such things himself.

First invention

Edison's first invention was an electrical recorder, which failed. After that, Edison moved to NY, where he began to improve the work of the stock ticker. It was a big breakthrough for him. By 1870, his company had begun manufacturing its own tickers in Newark, New Jersey. In addition, Edison improved the capabilities of the telegraph, which could now send up to four messages. By Christmas 1871, Thomas Edison had made the decision to marry Mary Stilwell. The couple had three children - Marion, Thomas and William. Wanting to move to a quieter place so he could invent more, Edison moved from Newark to Menlo Park in 1876. There he built his famous laboratory.

In Menlo Park, Edison did not work alone. He hired workers who flocked to Menlo from all over the world. Workers often stayed up at night, working alongside "the great brute wizard of Menlo Park." It was there that Edison produced three of his major works.

The phonograph is the first sound recording machine in history. In 1877, Edison recorded the first human voice on a piece of tin foil, on which he recited the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The phonograph played the rhyme. It is phenomenal that the phonograph was invented by a man who heard so badly that he called himself deaf.

Inventions of Thomas Edison

Beginning in 1878, Edison began work on his greatest invention, the electric lighting. Edison not only invented the incandescent lamp, he developed a system of power plants interconnected by electrical wiring. The Edison system was able to deliver electricity to millions of homes around the world.

In 1885, after the death of his wife, Edison met a 20-year-old woman named Mina Miller. Her father was also an inventor in Ohio. Edison taught Mina Morse code so they could secretly talk to each other even when they were surrounded by other people. Once he knocked on her hand the question: “Will you marry me”? Mina replied with the word "Yes".

Thomas and Mina married on February 24, 1886 and had three children: Madeleine, Charles and Theodore. The couple bought a house in West Orange, New Jersey, where Edison later set up a new laboratory for himself. The new laboratory was ten times larger than the previous one. It was here in West Orange that Edison developed half of his 1,093 patents.

Edison invented a colossal number of things that changed the life of people around the world. His works changed the course of progress, and many of them are still used today. Edison worked on x-rays, video recording, sound recording, electricity, radio waves, batteries, and far from it. full list. He worked for the good of mankind until his death. At the age of 84, on October 18, 1931, Thomas Edison died. By that time, he had already sung to become the most famous scientist-inventor of his era.

Thomas Edison (full name – Thomas Alva (Alva) Edison) is one of the most inventive people in the history of America and the whole world. He owns more 1000 US patents and more 3000 Worldwide.

Brief biography of Edison

Thomas Edison was born February 11, 1847 in the US town of Mylene, Ohio. His father - Samuel Edison, was a wheat trader. His mother - Nancy Elliott Edison, the daughter of a priest, a school teacher.

Little Al was small in stature and of a slight build. But this did not prevent him from becoming a very inquisitive and independent child from early childhood.

Thomas' study

In 1854 the Edison family moved to Michigan, where for 3 months Thomas Alva visited primary school. He was hampered by the deafness of his left ear, and the school teachers considered him a "limited" child. After a scandal with school management, Thomas was taken away from school by his mother.

He began to receive home education. Partly from his mother, since she was a teacher, partly from books bought for him on various subjects, including chemistry and physics.

Capable Boy

Thomas Edison was very independent from childhood. When he needed money engaged in trade- sold sweets, newspapers, fruits. Then he organized the boys into groups for sale, they traded and shared the proceeds with him.

However, the pocket money that he managed to earn in this way was not enough for his experiments, especially in chemistry.

First hired job

In 1859, young Thomas got a job as a paperboy. During this period, he manages to earn up to $ 10 a day thanks to his extraordinary abilities of inventive thinking. In 1862 he becomes publisher of his own small newspaper for train passengers.

In August 1862 Edison saves the son of the head of one of the stations from a moving car. The chief offered to teach him the telegraph business in gratitude. This is how he became acquainted with the telegraph. He immediately arranges his first telegraph line between his house and the house of a friend.

Successful Inventor

At the age of 22 Edison decided to find another job. He had behind him the experience of a seller of sweets, a peddler of newspapers, served in railway telegraph operator, dealt with poisonous chemicals. He wanted to find high paying job not to worry about your future.

He went to downtown New York, went to the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. Panic reigned there - the telegraph apparatus failed. Neither the invited master nor the telegraphers themselves could do anything.

Thomas asked permission to look. He was admitted to the apparatus with great distrust. He dismantled the mechanism, quickly fixed the problem and turned on the button. The device started up immediately. The manager happily took him to work with a salary of $ 300 a month.

Watching from the window of this firm the crisis black friday 1869 when crazed brokers sold on the stock exchange for pennies securities, Edison concluded for himself: in order to buy gold or securities that are either sold or not, you must have the necessary information and transmit it in a timely manner. Therefore, it makes sense to improve the telegraph apparatus!

First major success

In 1870, Edison succeeded in qualitatively improving the system of telegraphing stock bulletins about the price of gold and stocks. His employer became interested in this development and bought the invention for 40 thousand dollars.

Thanks to this money, Thomas Alva starts own business and opens a workshop in Newark where tickers are made for the needs of the stock exchange. By 1871, there were already three such workshops in his possession.

Laboratory in Menlo Park

In 1876, Edison, along with his wife Mary Stillwell and daughter Marion, moved to the small village of Menlo Park. Here he builds own laboratory and immerses himself in invention. For his activities, he does not spare money for the most modern equipment.

During this period, the path of Thomas Edison to world fame through inventions begins. For the company "Western Union" he completes his first order at a new lab and receives a $100,000 fee for improvements to the quality of the telephone service.

In 1877 he invented the phonograph- progenitor of the gramophone. It was a real sensation! Thomas came up with the idea of ​​recording human speech and playing it back after observing the operation of the telegraph - he heard sounds similar to human speech, pulled the tape harder and the “speech” accelerated. He decided to create a roller on which a sound can be recorded with a needle, and then reproduced with the same needle.

incandescent lamp

When Edison learned about the appearance in Russia of an incandescent light bulb, which was invented by a Russian engineer Alexander Lodygin in 1874, he immediately acquired it and decided to improve it. He had an idea to start lighting houses, streets, all of America.

Instead of a carbon thread, he inserted a twisted tungsten spiral, made a threaded base. The bulb shone brighter and proved to be more durable. He began to think about a switch, wires, a power plant ...

Soon the first power station was built in New York, it gave electricity, and the city, as Edison intended, began to be illuminated by a new incandescent light bulb.

In 1882, Edison built New York's first distribution substation, serving Pearl Street and 59 customers in Manhattan, and founded a company that made electric generators, light bulbs, cables, and lighting fixtures.

October 18, 1931 Thomas Alva Edison dies of complications at age 84 diabetes. He was buried in the backyard own house in West Orange, New Jersey.

Thomas Edison is considered one of the greatest inventors in history, and his more than 1,000 registered patents for various inventions will prove this. Many of his inventions are still around us in one form or another. His work with electrical systems and electrical networks are still fundamental. We will not torment you, and we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the most interesting facts about Thomas Edison.

The most interesting facts about Thomas Edison

1. It's amazing, but Thomas Edison only started talking when he was four years old.

2. The forehead of the inventor was unusually wide, which made his head an order of magnitude larger than the average size in humans.

3. In 1954, at the age of seven, Edison went to school. Thomas studied at educational institution only 52 weeks old and because of his hyperactivity and tendency to distraction was very difficult child. Teachers could not cope with him, from which his mother taught her son at home until Edison reached the age of eleven.

4. Homeschooling helped the boy a lot, as he began to develop a propensity for self-study, which was expressed in Thomas's thirst for knowledge, and especially for reading.

5. Edison loved Shakespeare's plays and wanted to be an actor. But because of his shyness when speaking in front of an audience and the high timbre of his voice, the boy abandoned this idea as a child. In addition, Edison read and write poetry.

6. In his younger years, the future famous inventor worked as a telegraph operator. According to Thomas himself, it was this work that inspired him to create many of his inventions in the field of telecommunications.

7. Thomas Edison was almost completely deaf. ear infection in early years his life caused the inventor to develop a serious illness. Already as an adult, doctors offered him an operation that would improve his hearing, but Edison refused.

8. At the age of thirteen, the future inventor was selling newspapers, but after a while the guy decided to publish his own newspaper.

9. Thomas Edison had a long rivalry with Nikola Tesla. Inventors constantly contradicted each other regarding the use of direct or alternating current. Tesla advocated the use of alternating current. Edison, on the other hand, had a different opinion, holding various demonstrations that demonstrated the dangers of alternating current.

10. In 1876 he set up the first laboratory in Menlo Park, California. It was the world's first industrial research laboratory. In fact, this laboratory can be considered one of the greatest inventions of Edison, since the scientist well equipped it and worked in it himself, changing the world for the better.

Also, thanks to this laboratory, Thomas Edison received the nickname "The Wizard of Menlo Park".

11. It took Edison a year and a half to create a lamp that burned for thirteen and a half hours. His invention made a world breakthrough and allowed us to have "light". The first successful light bulb model was shown to the public in 1879. The place of the demonstration was Menlo Park, and this is not surprising.

It is also interesting that in the same year, Thomas Edison's laboratory received full electric lighting. This event had no analogues in the world and made it possible to attract the public to the demonstration greatest invention Edison.

12. One of Edison's most unsuccessful inventions is his machine for electrical recording and member voices. legislatures. The project did not receive commercial benefits, which was the impetus for a new turn in the life of a scientist. From then on, Thomas Edison began to focus exclusively on those inventions that could bring him profit.

13. Another interesting fact about Thomas Edison is that he came up with a device to kill cockroaches using electric current.

14. The most failed project (in financial terms) Edison began experiments with the invention of a method for separating ore from rock mass. The inventor spent millions of dollars, but never made any significant progress in this matter.

15. The phonograph became the most famous invention of the scientist. Edison was even invited to The White house, where he presented the phonograph to the then President of the United States, Rutherford Burchard Hayes.

16. Edison made his first of 1,093 successful patent applications on October 13, 1868. Then he was only 21 years old. In addition, interestingly, Thomas had another 1,239 non-US patents registered in 34 countries around the world.

17. During his most productive years, Edison worked 17-hour days. IN modern world It is difficult to imagine a person who would give his all to work.

18. The well-known General Electric Corporation was created by Edison back in 1880. It was then called the Edison Illuminating Company.

19. At the time of his death, Thomas Edison was considered the most famous and respected person in the United States.

20. The eminent inventor recorded tens of thousands of ongoing experiments in about 2500 books.

Thomas Alva Edison - who is this?

Starting his career in 1863 as a teenager on the telegraph, when a primitive battery was practically the only source of electricity, he worked until his death in 1931 to approach the age of electricity. From his laboratories and workshops came the phonograph, carbon microphone capsule, incandescent lamps, a revolutionary generator of unprecedented efficiency, the first commercial lighting and power supply system, experimental main elements of cinema equipment and many other inventions.

Brief biography of young years

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Meilene, the son of Samuel Edison and Nancy Eliot. His parents fled to the United States from Canada after his father's participation in the Mackenzie rebellion in 1837. When the boy turned 7, his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Thomas Alva Edison, the youngest of seven children, lived here until he started living on his own at the age of sixteen. At school, he studied very little, only a few months. He was taught reading, writing and arithmetic by his teacher mother. He was always a very inquisitive child and was drawn to knowledge himself.

Thomas Alva Edison spent his childhood reading a lot, and his sources of inspiration were the books The School of Natural Philosophy by R. Parker and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and the Arts. The desire for self-improvement remained with him throughout his life.

Alva started working at an early age, like most children of that time. At 13, he took a job as a newspaper and candy salesman on a local railroad linking Port Huron with Detroit. He devoted most of his free time to reading scientific and technical books, and also took the opportunity to learn how to operate the telegraph. By the age of 16, Edison was already experienced enough to work as a full-time telegraph operator.

First invention

The development of the telegraph was the first step in the communications revolution, and it grew at a tremendous pace in the second half of the 19th century. This gave Edison and his colleagues the opportunity to travel, see the country and gain experience. Alva worked in a number of cities throughout the United States before arriving in Boston in 1868. Here Edison began to change his profession as a telegraph operator to an inventor. He patented the Electric Voting Recorder, a device designed for use in elected bodies such as Congress, to expedite the process. The invention became a commercial failure. Edison decided that in the future he would invent only things in the social demand of which he was completely sure.

Thomas Alva Edison: biography of the inventor

In 1869, he moved to New York, where he continued to work on improvements to the telegraph and created his first successful device, the Universal Stock Printer. Thomas Alva Edison, whose inventions brought him 40 thousand dollars, in 1871 had necessary funds to open its first small lab and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey. Over the next five years, he invented and made devices that greatly increased the speed and efficiency of the telegraph. Edison also found time to marry Mary Stilwell and start a family.

In 1876, he sold all his Newark operations and moved his wife, children, and employees to the small village of Menlo Park, 40 kilometers southwest of New York. Edison built a new facility that contained everything needed for inventive work. This research laboratory was the first of its kind and became a model for later institutions such as Bell Laboratories. It is said that she was his greatest invention. Here Edison began to change the world.

First phonograph

The first great invention in Menlo Park was the steel phonograph. The first machine that could record and reproduce sound made a splash and brought Edison worldwide fame. With her, he toured the country and in April 1878 was invited to the White House to demonstrate the phonograph to President Rutherford Hayes.

Electric light

Edison's next great venture was the development of a practical incandescent light bulb. The idea of ​​electric lighting was not new, and several people were already working on it, even developing some forms of it. But until that time, nothing had been created that could be practical for home use.

Edison's merit is the invention not only of the incandescent lamp, but also of the power supply system, which had everything necessary to be practical, safe and economical. After a year and a half of work, he achieved success when an incandescent lamp, which used a charred filament, shone for 13.5 hours.

The first public demonstration of the lighting system took place in December 1879, when the entire Menlo Park laboratory complex was equipped with it. The next few years the inventor devoted to the creation of the electric power industry. In September 1882, the first commercial power plant, located on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan, began operating, providing electricity and light to customers in an area of ​​one square mile. Thus began the era of electricity.

Edison General Electric

The success of electric lighting catapulted the inventor to fame and fortune as the new technology quickly spread throughout the world. The electrical companies continued to grow until they merged to form Edison General Electric in 1889. Despite the use of the inventor's last name in the name of the corporation, he did not control it. The huge amounts of capital required to develop the lighting industry required the involvement of investment banks such as J.P. Morgan. When Edison General Electric merged with its main competitor Thompson-Houston in 1892, the inventor's surname was dropped from her name.

Widowhood and second marriage

Thomas Alva Edison, whose personal life was overshadowed by the death of his wife Mary in 1884, began to devote less time to Menlo Park. And because of his involvement in the business, he began to visit there even less. Instead, he and his three children—Marion Estel, Thomas Alva Edison, Jr., and William Leslie—lived in New York City. A year later, while vacationing at a friends house in New England, Edison met twenty-year-old Mina Miller and fell in love with her. The marriage took place in February 1886, and the couple moved to West Orange, New Jersey, where the groom bought the Glenmont estate for his bride. The couple lived here until their death.

Laboratory in West Orange

After moving in, Thomas Alva Edison experimented in a makeshift workshop at an electric lamp factory in nearby Harrison, New Jersey. A few months after his marriage, he decided to build a new laboratory in West Orange, a mile from his home. By that time, he had sufficient resources and experience to build the most equipped and largest laboratory, surpassing all others, for the rapid and inexpensive development of inventions.

The new complex of five buildings was opened in November 1887. The three-story main building contained a power plant, mechanical workshops, warehouses, rooms for experiments and a big library. Four smaller buildings, built perpendicular to the main building, housed the physics, chemistry, and metallurgical laboratories, a sample shop, and storage. chemical substances. Big size The complex allowed Edison to work on not one, but ten or twenty projects at the same time. Buildings were added or rebuilt to meet the changing needs of the inventor until his death in 1931. Over the years, factories were built around the laboratory to produce Edison's creations. The entire complex eventually covered over 8 hectares, and 10,000 people worked there during the First World War.

Recording industry

After the opening of the new laboratory, Thomas Alva Edison continued to work on the phonograph, but then shelved it in order to work on electric lighting in the late 1870s. By 1890, he was producing phonographs for domestic and commercial use. As with electric light, he developed everything necessary for their operation, including devices for reproducing and recording sound, as well as equipment for their release. In doing so, Edison created an entire recording industry. The development and improvement of the phonograph went on continuously and continued almost until the death of the inventor.

Cinema

At the same time, Edison was engaged in the creation of a device capable of doing for the eyes what the phonograph does for the ears. They became cinema. The inventor demonstrated it in 1891, and two years later it started industrial production"movies" in a tiny film studio built in a laboratory known as Black Maria.

As in the case of electric lighting and the phonograph, before that, complete system for making and showing films. Initially, Edison's work in the cinema was innovative and original. However, many people became interested in this new industry and wanted to improve upon the inventor's early cinematic work. Therefore, many have contributed to the rapid development of cinema. In the late 1890s, a new industry was already flourishing, and by 1918 it had become so competitive that Edison pulled out of the business altogether.

Failure with iron ore

The success of phonographs and motion pictures in the 1890s helped offset the greatest failure of Edison's career. For ten years he worked in his laboratory and in the old iron mines in northwest New Jersey on mining methods. iron ore to satisfy the insatiable demand of Pennsylvania's steel mills. To finance this work, Edison sold all of his shares in General Electric.

Despite ten years of work and millions of dollars spent on research and development, he failed to make the process commercially viable, and he lost all the money invested. This would mean financial ruin if Edison did not continue to develop the phonograph and the cinema at the same time. Be that as it may, the inventor entered new Age still financially secure and ready to take on new challenges.

alkaline battery

Edison's new challenge was the development of a battery for use in electrical vehicles. The inventor was very fond of cars, and throughout his life he was the owner of many types of them that worked on different sources energy. Edison believed that electricity was the best fuel for them, but the capacity of conventional lead-acid batteries was not enough for this. In 1899 he began work on the alkaline battery. This project proved to be the most difficult and took ten years. By the time the new alkaline batteries were ready, gasoline cars had improved so much that electric cars were being used less frequently, mostly as delivery vehicles in cities. However, alkaline batteries proved useful for lighting railroad cars and cabins, sea buoys, and unlike iron ore, the significant investment paid off handsomely, and the battery eventually became Edison's most profitable product.

Thomas A. Edison Inc.

By 1911, Thomas Alva Edison had developed extensive industrial activity in West Orange. Numerous factories were built around the laboratory, and the staff of the complex grew to several thousand people. In order to better manage the work, Edison gathered all the companies he founded into one corporation, Thomas A. Edison Inc., of which he himself became president and chairman. He was 64 years old, and his role in the company and in life began to change. Edison delegated most of his daily work others. The laboratory itself was engaged in less original experiments and improved existing products. Although Edison continued to file and receive patents for new inventions, the days of creating new things that change lives and create new industries are behind him.

Defense work

In 1915, Edison was asked to head the Naval Advisory Committee. The US was nearing involvement in World War I, and the creation of the committee was an attempt to organize the talents of the nation's leading scientists and inventors for the benefit of the US military. Edison accepted the appointment. The council did not make a tangible contribution to the final victory, but served as a precedent for future successful cooperation between scientists, inventors, and the US military. During the war, at the age of seventy, Edison spent several months on Long Island on a Navy ship, experimenting with methods to detect submarines.

golden anniversary

Thomas Alva Edison went from being an inventor and industrialist to becoming a cultural icon, a symbol of American enterprise. In 1928, in recognition of his achievements, the US Congress awarded him a Special Medal of Honor. In 1929, the country celebrated the golden jubilee of electric lighting. The celebration culminated in a banquet in honor of Edison given by Henry Ford at Greenfield Village, a museum of the new American history(it completely recreated the laboratory in Menlo Park). The ceremony was attended by the president and many presenters and inventors.

Replacement for rubber

The last experiments in Edison's life were made at the request of his good friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone in the late 1920s. They wanted to find an alternative source of rubber to use in car tires. Until then, tires were made from natural rubber, which comes from a rubber tree that does not grow in the United States. Raw rubber was imported and became more and more expensive. With his characteristic energy and thoroughness, Edison tested thousands of various plants to find a suitable substitute, and eventually found that goldenrod could serve as a substitute for rubber. Work on this project continued until the death of the inventor.

Last years

During the last two years of Edison's life, his health deteriorated significantly. He spent a lot of time away from the lab, instead working from home in Glenmont. Trips to the family villa in Fort Myers, Florida were getting longer. Edison was in his eighties and was suffering from a range of ailments. In August 1931 he became very ill. Edison's health steadily worsened, and at 3:21 am on October 18, 1931, the great inventor died.

A city in the state of New Jersey, two colleges and many schools are named after him.

Thomas Edison is a legendary man, a subverter of rules and canons, who became a world-famous inventor not because of, but in spite of.

Judge for yourself. He was youngest child V big family bankrupt merchant. Neither parental state nor higher education Thomas didn't. But he was inquisitive, inquisitive and unusually able-bodied.

There is a legend that Thomas was kicked out of school after the first four months of training, the teacher said that he was mentally retarded. Geniuses are often underestimated, so it was with Einstein and with the eternal opponent - Tesla.

But Edison literally from childhood showed a passion for invention and entrepreneurial talent.

Al, as they called him in childhood, was short, looked weak and little mobile (he liked to watch more: the work of the port, steamships, etc.). At school, teachers considered him limited, and after one of the teachers called him retarded, his mother took him out of school and began to teach him at home.

Mothers are often the most influential people in the lives of the most talented businessmen (Brenson, for example), hence the lesson: be patient with your children, do not be fooled by public opinion.

Edison received his education in the library. He opened his first scientific book at the age of 9. It was "Natural and Experimental Philosophy" by Richard Greene Parker, which tells about scientific and technological achievements. Later, Edison did almost all the experiments listed in the book.

He started earning his first money at the age of 12 - he sold apples and sweets in train cars, where he was allocated a car. The boy spent the proceeds on chemical experiments, which he carried out in his own laboratory, equipped in the baggage car. There he printed his own newspaper and sold it to passengers.

Passion for inventions

At the age of 16, he works as a telegraph operator for the notorious Western Union. It's telegraph boom time, everyone wants to connect and Thomas travels around the country a lot. He sees how people live, he has a wide circle of friends. In 1868 he stopped for a long time in Boston. Here he patents a device - a vote recorder and learns the most important lesson.

It must be said that while in Boston, Alva got acquainted with the works of Faraday and was fascinated by the idea of ​​electricity.

Never invent something for which there is no demand. Edison followed this rule all his life after the electric vote counter he invented did not find application. But all subsequent inventions brought him wide fame and admiration. We still use them, unaware of the authorship.

The telegraph is one of the most important inventions of the 19th century. Edison significantly improved it - made it faster and more accessible.

Edison fearlessly undertook the implementation of the most daring ideas. The stock ticker brought in the first $40,000. Having set up with this money the work of a laboratory for the production of a telegraph apparatus for transmitting stock quotes, he continued to improve this type of communication, resulting in a quadruplex telegraph.

Etison develops his standard scheme: first, a laboratory is created in which a certain prototype is developed, after which workshops are organized. where a new invention is "stamped" for general sale.

In 1876, in the town of Menlo Park, Edison equipped a laboratory for testing and improving existing technologies, where he recruited a staff of capable employees. The creation of this laboratory is also considered an invention - it became the prototype of modern research institutes, it was called the "cauldron of thoughts", in a modern interpretation - a think tank. Edison recruited people to match himself - able to work without looking back at the clock, thinking boldly and not afraid of non-standard solutions.

One of the first inventions created in Menlo Park was telephony. Thomas was paid $100,000 by Western Union to develop an efficient telephone microphone with sound amplification.

Edison Ideas

The list of ideas made possible by the genius of Thomas Edison is impressive. This is the phonograph, the first to reproduce human speech; electric locomotive; talking dolls; alkaline battery; iron ore beneficiation method, etc.

His most revolutionary invention was the now common electric light bulb. Rather, its improvement. Edison made sure that the filament worked efficiently, the lamp did not burn out too quickly, consumed a small amount of current and was affordable. And then he developed a system for consuming electricity, "illuminating" the city block to begin with.

It is a mistake to believe that Thomas gained fame thanks only to the lamp. no, his genius went much further: he thought over the organization of the electrical system (with its components - from the power plant to the methods of delivery to consumers) and, in fact, he launched the age of electricity.

How it happened:

• In December 1879, the electrical lighting system in Menlo Park was demonstrated.
• In 1882, the first commercial power station was launched (Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan).

These two demonstration projects literally blew up the world. Electric companies are growing at a tremendous rate. Not only enthusiasts, but also the largest banks in the world are already investing in them.

A page from the same patent, with drawings of an electric lamp.

Two gentlemen on the pier. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison are the people who changed the world.

State

Thomas Edison's fortune was estimated at $15 billion (one of the richest people of his time). He invested most of the proceeds in his business, spending very little on personal needs.

Fanatic efficiency, purposefulness, openness of thoughts, great erudition, despite the lack of a classical education, courage and determination - these are the components of the success of the great inventor. He believed: "In order to invent something really incredible, sometimes it's better not to know that experts consider it impossible."

“I owe my success to the fact that I never kept a clock at my workplace” - this Edison phrase that significant results can be achieved only by work. And he knew what he was talking about - in 60 years, Thomas Edison patented 1093 inventions.

The legacy of the great improver formed the basis of the General Electric Company.

Quotes by Thomas Edison

• I have not been defeated. I just found 10,000 ways that don't work.
• Success is ten percent luck and ninety percent perspiration.
• Most people are ready to work endlessly, just to get rid of the need to think a little.
• I did not have working days and days of rest. I just did it and enjoyed it.
• Most people miss the opportunity. Because she is sometimes dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Hollywood

Edison held the patent for the 35mm film format. He had a system, employees, agents who were engaged in the protection of patent rights, looking for those who illegally use inventions.

So in 1908, out of more than 800 cinemas in New York, about half a thousand were closed for using the above film format without deductions to the Edison company.

It is often joked that filmmakers ran away from Edison and stopped right on the other coast, in the hope that Long hands Thomas will not be overtaken there.